Eclipse
by asamiruria
Summary: Ayla Shirase was just a normal teenager, travelling the Sinnoh region with her five beloved pokémon and earning a few badges here and there. She'd never expected anything to change in her life as a run-of-the-mill trainer, but that's exactly what happens when she saves the life of the Legendary Bringer of Nightmares.
1. Rescue of a Legend

**sup everyone it's asami here with a fanfic featuring darkrai, my trash fave. i've tried to write a pokémon fic before, but i lost the flow halfway through because i'm a lazy, unmotivated shit. it's been adopted by kyroshiro, who's done quite a good job of continuing it. it's called 'bleeding darkness' – give it a read if it tickles your fancy.**

 **anyway, i've got plans for this one. i've always liked the idea that everyone hates darkrai because they think that he gives nightmares on purpose, but it's actually his ability, 'bad dreams'. in actuality, darkrai is a very kind and gentle pokémon who would never hurt anyone without good reason. so in this fic, i'm going to have the world realise that fact. hopefully, there's also going to be a plot involving some evil criminal organisation or another trying to capture powerful pokémon as tools to use in their dastardly plans of world domination. you know, the usual.**

 **there will be no romantic ships in this fic, but there will be a queerplatonic relationship between darkrai and the main character. if you don't know what that is, just google it my dude.**

 **well anyway, sit back and try to enjoy the first chapter.**

 **note: i won't use capitals for pokémon's species names because they're like the animal names of our world, and we don't capitalise those. darkrai's name will be capitalised, however, because that's literally his name.**

 **warnings: blood, gore (graphic descriptions of injuries), profanity.**

* * *

Strands of seaweed swayed gently in the slight currents of the ocean. Multi-coloured corals dotted the seafloor, little chinchou and finneon darting in and out of them. Sunlight filtered down from above, creating dappled, golden beams of light in the crystal clear water.

Ayla Shirase was perched on the back of Aurora, her empoleon, wearing a green, one-piece wetsuit. She smiled at the beautiful scenery around her, though the expression was rather awkward and strained due to the breathing apparatus in her mouth. She'd been exploring the ocean floor all day, not even coming up for lunch, and she was sure she must have been halfway across the region by now. Luckily, her trainer's backpack was waterproof, so she hadn't had to leave it on land before diving in.

She glanced at her watch, and was mildly surprised when it read 6:24pm. It was summer, and the sun didn't come down until well past seven, so she supposed it was plausible. Either way, she was going to have to come up for dinner soon—now that she wasn't so engrossed in finding all the rare and interesting pokémon down on the seafloor, she could feel her stomach growling angrily.

As Aurora drifted leisurely into a forest of seaweed, Ayla suddenly spotted a cloud of dark water a distance away from them. She furrowed her brows. _That looks too much like blood for me to just ignore it_ , the trainer thought. Using the telepathic powers she possessed, she spoke into her empoleon's mind.

" _Aurora, do you see that?"_ Ayla pointed at the murky cloud. Beneath her, the empoleon nodded.

" _Could you swim towards it? I want to see what it is. If it's an injured pokémon or person, we need to help them."_

Aurora complied, and they sped towards the bloody water.

As the two approached the source of the red cloud, Ayla began to feel a faint echo; emotions that were not her own. Her heart skipped in worry. It wasn't the presence of the emotions that alarmed her – along with her telepathy, Ayla had an empathic sense that allowed her to feel the emotions of anyone within five metres of herself, should she so choose. It was the emotions themselves – panic, fear, sadness, and resignation. Definitely not a good sign.

When they reached the dark water, Ayla hopped off her pokémon. There was a blurry, indistinct figure amidst the field of swaying seaweed that seemed to be the source of the cloud of blood, and Ayla bent down to examine it more closely. But the blood was too thick, and she couldn't clearly distinguish what it was. She turned to Aurora, whose underwater eyesight was infinitely better than hers. " _Hey, can you see what that—"_

Ayla made a muffled noise of surprise as her empoleon's flipper knocked her away from the unconscious creature.

" _Don't go near it!"_ Aurora cried in her trainer's mind. Her eyes were wide with fear. " _That pokémon is very dangerous!"_

" _But to produce that amount of blood, they must be badly injured!"_ Ayla replied, once she had gotten back on her feet. _I have to help them!_ She made to approach the unmoving pokémon again.

" _No!"_ Aurora shouted, and held her trainer back with her flippers.

" _Aurora, they're unconscious!"_ Ayla reasoned as she struggled in her pokémon's hold. " _It's not like they can hurt me. Besides, look at how much blood they've lost! They might die if we don't help them!"_

The empoleon's grip slackened slightly as she wavered, unsure, and Ayla used that opportunity to slip out of the penguin's grasp. She knelt beside the pokémon again, and gently slid her arms under them. She lifted them up – an easy task considering the buoying effect of the water and the fact that the pokémon was smaller than she was – and made her way back to Aurora with the pokémon in her arms.

The empoleon's expression still held doubt and apprehension, but nevertheless, she lay herself flat on the seafloor to allow her trainer to mount her before beginning to swim towards the surface. As they cleared the cloud of blood, Ayla looked down at the unconscious pokémon. Her eyes widened in horror.

The pokémon's body was mainly black, shaped like an hourglass with a tiny 'waist' and what looked like a tattered robe of some sort on the bottom, a similarly ragged tail protruding out the back. Their arms ended in claws, and there was a row of bright red spikes around their neck. From their shoulders streamed two plumes of corporeal black smoke, and from their head, a white plume.

But their appearance wasn't what had horrified Ayla. It was their injuries. There were numerous cuts all over their body, some shallow and some deep, with a particularly nasty gash just below their collar of spikes. The black tatter that flowed from their left shoulder looked like it was missing quite a sizeable chunk, and Ayla would eat her Pokétch if that arm was twisted the right way around. When she looked behind her, she could see a distinct, dark red trail marking their path.

 _Shit,_ Ayla thought. _"Faster, Aurora!"_ She called to her Pokémon, who obliged. It wasn't long before they broke the surface of the water with a gasp.

The trainer thanked the empoleon, and recalled her to her pokéball with a beam of red light. She swallowed a lump in her throat as she caught sight of the spreading redness surrounding her and the unconscious pokémon, as the blood diffused across the water. As quickly as she could, Ayla removed the oxygen apparatus from her mouth and stuffed it into her backpack, then reached inside and removed two pokéballs from it.

"Come out, Tori, Miria!" She cried, and tossed both balls into the air; two beams of white light escaped and formed into the shapes of a staraptor and a gardevoir. The former settled on top of the water, and the latter levitated just above the sea's surface.

"Tori, I need you to take me to the closest city to here, as fast as you can," Ayla addressed her staraptor urgently. She then turned to the gardevoir. "Miria, do you think you'd be able to keep up with Tori and levitate this pokémon along with you?"

The two pokémon's gazes travelled over to the wounded pokémon still floating in the sea, and their reactions were immediate. Tori jerked back violently, splashing water onto her trainer, and Miria stiffened, a horrified gasp issuing from her mouth.

" _Ayla!"_ The staraptor's mental voice was sharp with fear. _"What are you doing with that- that_ thing _?!"_

Ayla gritted her teeth. "Look, I can see that neither you two nor Aurora have high opinions of this pokémon for some reason, but _look_ at them! Do you think they're in any shape to be causing any trouble? They're _dying_! Please, just help me get them to a pokémon centre, alright?" Her voice softened into a pleading tone in the last sentence.

Grudgingly, the two pokémon nodded, Tori swimming closer to her trainer and motioning for her to get on her back, but not without a muttered side remark of _"'don't have high opinions of him', that's a gross understatement."_ Ayla made note of the pokémon's apparent gender, but otherwise ignored the staraptor's comment.

" _Under normal circumstances, I would have no trouble managing what you want me to do, but... he's a dark type. I'm not sure if my psychic powers would have any effect on him at all,"_ Miria said, her mental voice worried. _"But I'll try anyway."_ She raised a hand and a green light shimmered into being around the injured pokémon. Relief bloomed inside Ayla's chest when the gardevoir's telekinesis successfully lifted the pokémon out of the water and directed him over to float in the air beside her.

"Alright, to the nearest city!" The trainer commanded. "Fast as you can, he's already lost a lot of blood!"

Many things could be said about Ayla's pokémon, but nobody could accuse them of being unreliable when things got dire. Without wasting a second, Tori flapped her wings powerfully, lifting both her passenger and herself into the air, and shot forward. Miria's eyes glowed as she skimmed over the ocean underneath the staraptor, effortlessly matching the flying-type's speed and keeping the injured pokémon airborne behind her all the while.

All conversation ceased once they had set off—Tori was too busy scanning the horizon for any sign of land and the telekinesis Miria was using took up all of her concentration. As for Ayla, she was caught up in both the usual exhilaration she felt from being up so high in the air, the sea spread out in a vast indigo carpet beneath her and the sharp winds raising goosebumps along her flesh, and her intense concern for the dark-type held in the green glow of Miria's psychic powers. She couldn't gauge the exact amount of damage he'd sustained, but considering what she could see, it would probably be a miracle if he ended up surviving. Though, she wasn't sure whether that was really a bad thing, just going by her pokémon's attitudes to him, which had been averse to say the least.

Her curiosity rose at that thought. She wondered what sort of pokémon he could be to arouse even the hatred of Tori, who, while reckless and brash, was also inclined to see the good in everyone. She glanced down at him from her spot on her staraptor's back, and grimaced. His injuries looked bad even from there. Whatever had made them must have been even more terrifying than he supposedly was. Ayla could see a steady trail of red marking their path in the otherwise unbroken blue expanse of water, and she hoped no sharpedo were near.

The girl was jerked from her thoughts by a cry from Tori, made loud and raucous in her attempt to be heard over the rushing wind. _"I see land!"_ The staraptor informed her trainer through their telepathic link. Ayla squinted into the distance, and, after a few seconds, caught sight of the thin, dark line on the horizon that her pokémon's sharper eyes had seen before her. It was silhouetted by the reddish light of the sun, which was in its final stages of setting. As they neared the land, details began making themselves clear in Ayla's vision, the first of which was the white lining the treetops.

" _Tori, Miria!"_ The girl called to her pokémon. _"That should be Snowpoint City up ahead! Speed it up, we need to get there before dark!"_

Both pokémon quickened their pace in response, the staraptor tucking her wings in and angling herself so she was slicing through the air like an arrow shot from a bow. The glow of Miria's eyes brightened as she strained her powers to keep up.

The group found themselves flying above land just as the sun's dimly glowing outline sank below the horizon. The treetops that passed in a blur underneath them grew steadily harder to see in the twilight, and Ayla was relieved when the four finally came to a stop on the ground near the pokémon centre.

The trainer quickly dismounted her staraptor and, thanking her, called her back to her ball. She then made her way over to the injured pokémon and held her arms out under him. The glow in Miria's eyes faded as she slowly released her telekinetic hold on him and let him gently come to a rest in Ayla's arms. The girl staggered a little under his weight—he was definitely heavier on land than he had been in water. Then she noticed the slight, barely discernible rise and fall of his chest, and her knees grew weak again, this time with immense relief.

Ayla turned around immediately and ran through the pokémon centre's automatic doors. She heard several gasps from the occupants of the centre's lobby as she entered, Miria behind her, but paid no heed as she hurried over to the counter. "Nurse Joy!" The trainer cried, her voice full of desperation. "Please save this pokémon, he's severely injured!"

The pink-haired nurse froze as she caught sight of the black pokémon. "A legendary," she breathed, voice both awed and fearful. "But how on earth…?" Then, seeming to remember herself, she hurried around to the front of the counter and began to issue orders quickly and efficiently to the chansey and blissey around her.

"Nana, get a stretcher!" A chansey disappeared into a doorway and returned wheeling a stretcher in almost no time. Ayla ran to it and gently placed the pokémon onto it, wincing as she saw the blood he'd left on her arms.

"Eve, use soft-boiled, then refresh, to stabilise him!" A large blissey approached with a determined look in her eyes, and uttered a soft cry. The egg in her pouch glowed, and a second, smaller egg separated itself from it, floating over and entering into the dark-type pokémon's body. His wounds shrank slightly, but they were still horrific in their severity. Next, a green aura surrounded Eve's body, and a similar glow appeared around the pokémon's. The oozing of blood from his wounds slowed almost to a stop.

"Quickly, to the ICU!" Joy commanded decisively, and the egg-like pokémon rushed with the stretcher into another entrance without a second's delay. The nurse followed quickly, closing the door behind her. A few seconds later, the fluorescent light above the green door lit red.

* * *

 **originally, this chapter was just one part of the first chapter, but it got too long so I had to separate it. that's why this chapter ends in such an awkward place.**

 **just to clear shit up: none of ayla's pokémon except miria actually have telepathy themselves; ayla's telepathic connection to them is constantly open and they can simply project what they want to say into it and she'll hear.**

 **i'll have the second chapter up in a week because i already have it written, but otherwise the update schedule will be irregular af because as i said, I'm an unmotivated shit.**

 **last thing:**

 **pls dunt hate on mi eym just a dumb 16 yr old lmao**


	2. History of a Legend

**so here's the second chapter. it's pretty dialogue heavy and nothing really happens in it because it was originally part of the first chapter.**

* * *

Realising that the fate of the pokémon she'd rescued was now completely in the hands of the capable Nurse Joy, Ayla collapsed into a chair with a loud and shaky exhale. But then she stood up again in the next moment, groaning as she hurried into a door labelled "women's toilets" in order to escape the small horde of excited and curious trainers she saw coming towards her. Miria followed, giving her trainer an exasperated look as Ayla fumbled in her bag for the gardevoir's pokéball and recalled her hastily. A few female trainers pushed their way into the bathroom in pursuit, but Ayla quickly ducked into a stall, ignoring the questions they shouted at her.

After five minutes of awkwardly sitting on the toilet lid, Ayla heard the trainers exiting the bathroom, having become bored with her lack of response. She heaved a great sigh of relief and stood up, unlocking the cubicle door and tentatively peeking out. The coast was indeed clear, so the trainer made her way across to one of the shower stalls. She figured that since she was here already, she might as well take a shower and wash off the salt that was caked onto her skin – it certainly hadn't felt pleasant during that hour-long flight on the way to Snowpoint.

Half an hour later, fresh, squeaky-clean, and smelling like daisies, Ayla was sat in a booth at the very back of the centre's cafeteria. She had a bowl of hot, delicious-smelling noodles in front of her, but was currently ignoring it in favour of setting out her pokémon's meals from a kit of breeder-made pokémon food specially tailored for her team. She placed four of the bowls of coloured pellets mixed with dried berries on the floor, and other one on the table for her gardevoir, who didn't like to eat on the ground. Upon finishing, she removed the pokéballs secured to her belt, and tossed them into the air.

Five beams of white energy shot out, forming into an empoleon, a staraptor, a gardevoir, a pachirisu, and a grovyle. The pokémon looked around, taking in their surroundings, before catching sight of the food. Tori, Sparky the pachirisu, and Jayde the grovyle immediately dove for their meals on the ground while Miria slid gracefully into the seat beside Ayla. Aurora, however, didn't join her teammates on the floor, but instead sidled up to her trainer, a worried look in her eyes.

" _You're okay? You're not hurt? He didn't do anything to you?"_ She immediately fired off a series of rapid questions.

" _No, nothing happened, I'm fine,"_ Ayla replied using telepathy—she'd learned her lesson after getting stared at one too many times for replying out loud to her pokémon. She chuckled a little at the empoleon's protectiveness.

Aurora looked relieved, but also a little miffed when her trainer laughed at her. _"Ayla, you need to take your safety more seriously—"_ the penguin began, but she was interrupted by Sparky. _"Who's "he"? What happened?"_ The electric squirrel asked, looking up from his food curiously. Jayde paused in his meal as well, his gaze inquisitive and questioning.

On one hand, Ayla was glad that Sparky had stopped what was sure to have escalated into one of Aurora's famous lectures, but now she had to explain what had transpired, and that would probably put her on the receiving end of quintuple the amount of lectures, which was much worse. Oh well, at least she didn't have to physically speak, so she could still enjoy a hearty meal while getting verbally pummelled to death. The girl sighed, resigning herself to her fate, and began her recount.

" _So, Aurora and I had been diving under the ocean for pretty much the whole day when—"_

" _The whole day?!"_ Miria exclaimed. _"You didn't even come up for lunch? Ayla, how many times have I told you that your health is more important than anything else?"_

" _Okay, Miria, I'm sorry!"_ Ayla groaned. _Not even a sentence in and I'm_ already _getting yelled at,_ she thought, closing her eyes in exasperation. _"I won't do it again, I promise, so can I_ please _continue with my story?"_

" _You may,"_ the gardevoir replied primly, sitting back.

" _Thank you. Alright, so it was around 6:30 and we were in this seaweed forest when I saw this cloud of reddish water on the seafloor that looked like blood. Naturally, I got worried, so I told Aurora to take us over to it. She did that pronto, and I got off and approached it. I could see some sort of figure lying, not moving, on the seafloor, but the water was too murky for me to be able to make out any details. I tried to get Aurora's help, since her underwater eyesight is hells of a lot better than mine, but she knocked me back, and wouldn't let me go near it again._

" _I managed to convince her to help me though, and she carried me and the pokémon to the surface. Afterwards, I got Tori to fly me to the nearest city, and Miria to follow along below us while levitating the injured pokémon with her. We got to Snowpoint City in about an hour, and I handed the pokémon over to Nurse Joy, and now, here we are, with me completely unharmed, which is quite contrary to what three certain pokémon seemed to think would happen."_ The trainer gave a glare in the direction of Aurora, Tori and Miria. _"Honestly. That pokémon was not only unconscious, but also bleeding out in gallons, and you still think he could have done anything to me? I would have thought you would've been leaping to save him, not actively hindering me when I was trying to do just that!"_

Miria and Aurora lowered their eyes, chastised, but Tori shook her head. _"No, you don't understand, Ayla,"_ the staraptor pressed, tone insistent. _"That wasn't just any ordinary pokémon – that was Darkrai, the nightmare god."_

Jayde and Sparky, who had been listening intently up until that moment, froze up at the flying-type's words, Jayde letting out a choked gasp. _"Arceus…"_ the grovyle breathed. _"Ayla, if that pokémon really was Darkrai, then Aurora, Tori and Miria were absolutely right to be wary. He's a legend who gives both people and pokémon terrible nightmares wherever he goes. If he'd been conscious when you found him…"_ The grass-type shuddered, his yellow eyes full of horror.

" _Oh yeah, Nurse Joy mentioned that he was a legendary when I brought him in,"_ Ayla recalled. _"I guess I didn't really register it until now."_ Then, showing hesitance for the first time that day, she asked, " _Is… is he really that bad?"_

" _Yes, he one-hundred-percent is,"_ Sparky replied, adding his two cents. His tail twitched nervously, seemingly terrified at the very mention of the nightmare king.

" _Actually, I'm surprised that you hadn't heard of him before today,"_ Aurora mused. _"Which city did you say you came from again?"_

" _Canalave,"_ Ayla replied, tilting her head. _"What about it?"_

" _That makes it even stranger that you had no idea of him,"_ Aurora said, frowning. _"Canalave is the city he visits and terrorises the most. Or, used to,"_ she corrected herself. _"I heard from my cousin who lives in that area that he hasn't been coming in recent years. Apparently, he stopped right after that incident with Dialga and Palkia in that town… what was it called again? Alomus? Amalos?"_

" _Alamos."_ Ayla supplied. _"But that whole thing happened like, forty years ago! My mum is forty-six right now, and my mama is forty-four; they couldn't have been more than toddlers around that time. If that's when Darkrai stopped coming to Canalave, no wonder I haven't heard of him. My mothers probably don't even remember him themselves."_

" _Maybe,"_ Aurora replied, looking doubtful.

" _What did Darkrai have to do with the Alamos incident anyway?"_ Ayla asked, curious.

" _H_ _e was one of the major forces in stopping Dialga and Palkia's fight and keeping the town from being consumed by Palkia's spacial powers,"_ Aurora responded.

" _Really? I heard that Ash Ketchum, Dawn Berlitz and Brock Takeshi were the ones who calmed the legendaries and saved the town. You know, the ones who went on to become Sinnoh League Champion, Top Coordinator, and world-famous pokémon breeder respectively."_

" _That is true, but Darkrai was crucial in keeping the legendaries at bay so that those humans could have time to climb the tower and play the song."_

" _Wait…"_ Ayla frowned. _"But if he did that, doesn't that mean he's actually a good pokémon?"_

" _Oh, he was just doing it to save his own hide,"_ Aurora said dismissively. _"There was a severe distortion in space around the town that prevented anyone from leaving it, so it's not like he had a choice. It was either fight the legendaries or vanish into oblivion. Saving the town was just a little side effect."_

" _It seems a bit harsh, though, judging someone's character before you really get to know them…"_ Ayla murmured.

" _The extent of his evil has been very well established through history that spans millennia, Ayla,"_ Miria chimed in. _"Wherever he goes, he leaves behind a trail of pokémon and humans whose lives are ruined by his nightmares. Some never regain normal sleep cycles after experiencing a Darkrai-induced nightmare, some take weeks, months, and even years to rouse from their sleep, and some never wake up at all. Many families from Canalave were devastated this way when Darkrai would inflict himself upon the city each new moon. They were lucky that Cresselia, Goddess of Dreams and Darkrai's counterpart, was there to drive Darkrai off and curb the effects of his powers each month, otherwise their fates would have no doubt been much worse."_

Ayla sat back, absorbing this information while taking thoughtful bites of her dinner.

" _Wow,"_ she finally uttered. _"Never knew my city had such an unpalatable history. You learn something new every day, I guess. Though, I wonder what gave Darkrai such horrendous injuries, and how he ended up on the bottom of the ocean."_

" _Well, judging by the direction we flew to get to Snowpoint City, I'd say we were in an area of the ocean close to Full and New Moon Islands,"_ Tori remarked. _"The islands where Cresselia and Darkrai live,"_ she explained upon seeing Ayla's perplexed look. _"Maybe Darkrai got into a fight or something on his way back to his island. But does it really matter?"_ The staraptor's tone suddenly grew harsh and angry. _"I'd say he deserved what he got, for the millions of years of needless suffering he's caused. In fact, I don't think continuous beatings of that nature for the next few centuries would be enough to atone. Ayla, I say that you should have left him for dead!"_ She finished with a snarl.

The trainer shook her head in response. _"No, Tori, that isn't the way. The value of life is absolute, remember?"_ She gently chided. _"No one should have to die, no matter what manner of terrible things they've done."_

Tori grumbled and looked away, muttering a few choice comments about what she thought Darkrai deserved. Ayla ignored her.

" _I'm glad I found him before it was too late,"_ the girl said, and that, of course, made the staraptor even less happy. Ayla continued to pay no attention to her pokémon's ranting and instead stood up with a satisfied sigh.

" _Well that was certainly a good meal!"_ She exclaimed. _"I'm feeling quite worn out now, so I think I'll go hit up one of the centre's free rooms."_ She grabbed her bag and prepared to make her way out of the cafeteria, but Aurora's voice stopped her.

" _Ayla, are you sure you want to sleep here tonight?"_ The empoleon questioned. _"Since Darkrai's here, you'll most likely get the terrible nightmares we warned you about. You've already heard from Miria how bad they can wreck you. We'll be in our pokéballs so we won't be affected, but do you really want to take that risk?"_

" _Nah,"_ Ayla responded with a yawn. _"It's too dark out to fly to another city, and I think I'm gonna drop dead asleep in another five minutes, regardless. I think I'll take my chances."_ With that, she recalled her pokémon into their pokéballs, strapped them onto her belt, and traipsed off to find a room for the night.

As Ayla wrapped herself in the pokémon centre's starchy covers, she reflected on her day, which had been quite eventful, to say the least. She'd met, and saved the life of a legendary, and had gotten an impromptu history lesson from her pokémon about what was apparently an important part of her own hometown's lore. But, true to her own word, Ayla couldn't stave off the tempting embrace of sleep any longer. She surrendered gladly to its sweet darkness with vague thoughts of what tomorrow would bring.

* * *

 **i! suck! at endings! hAHAHAHAHAHA anyway**

 **note: tobias didn't exist, okay? i think that some random person showing up with two legendaries is just bullshit. besides, in this au, there is only one of each legendary pokémon, so tobias having darkrai and latios wouldn't make sense. anyway, without tobias, ash won the sinnoh league, so he's champion.**

 **from here on, updates will be few and far between bc i'm seriously busy.**


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